President's Message March '06

During these past couple of weeks you have received news, suggested wording for a letter, and people in Washington to contact regarding the "Orphan Works" issue. Lisa Shaftel has been working long and hard on formulating our concerns and you can read the Guild's white paper on the subject, written by Lisa, on the Guild website.

Now comes a new phase in our battle to secure a best possible outcome in the "Orphan Works" debate. Included after my remarks is a letter that explains the next step in working to protect our interests. Please read it and understand that what the House Subcommittee is looking for is a consensus of opinion.

The letter asks us to sign on to be represented by a group designated by Congressional staff to act as representatives for the creative groups affected by the "Orphan Works" proposed legislation. The group is comprised of the ASMP [American Society of Media Photographers], PACA [Picture Archive Council of America], and the PPA [Professional Photographers of America]. We have a good relationship with Victor S. Perlman and the ASMP, ( he and Lisa worked together on the Dallal vs NY Times amicus brief). Victor will represent our interests fully as our interests are the same as those of the photographers he is Counsel for.

As the letter below states, now is the time to act as a group with a common goal. Therefore, now is the time to refrain from contacting Congress as individuals. Let this group act in our behalf, because this is our best chance to be heard, and this is our chance to show that visual artists can come together on this important issue.

Thank you to everyone who sent letters or faxes to Washington these past weeks. Your efforts have made an impact.

As you are aware, the House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property on Wednesday heard testimony on proposed orphan works legislation. By now we are all familiar with the proposed legislation and its detrimental effects for each of us. To say the deck is stacked against the visual artist community would be an understatement. One thing is very clear (and Chairman Smith said as much to us directly) -- this train is leaving the station with us or without us. The question is whether photographers and visual artists are going to work cooperatively to improve the legislation that, in the end, will largely not be to our benefit.

If you monitored the hearing, you are aware that the Chairman asked us whether we would be willing to work with those on the opposite side of the table to create the best language possible - and made it very clear that this has to happen by the end of March. Of course if we don't pledge to work with the others cooperatively, the bill will be introduced in its current form; additionally, the visual artist community comes off looking like obstructionists, and we lose a lifetime of political capital.

Unfortunately, people on Capitol Hill view the visual artist community as disjointed, fragmented, and lacking unity. We are often portrayed as unreasonable and uncooperative. Those perceptions weaken our base and cloud our message. It is important that we stand united in what we are trying to accomplish in this - to get the best possible wording out of legislation that will not be popular with any of us.

ASMP, PACA and PPA have been designated by Congressional staff and the representatives of the primary user communities to represent the visual artist community in a closed working session on Monday. Unfortunately, participation in the session is by invitation only, and we do not have the ability to bring any other organizations to the table. Your concerns about the legislation and ours are the same. We intend to fight for every inch we can get. This issue cannot come to be about who sits in the room. We are all together in this.

We are asking you whether we have your permission to state that we are speaking for your organization and members, as well as our own. Because this thing is moving so incredibly quickly, we need to have your response by Monday morning, March 13. We already know the issues and bargaining points that are important to you, and we will do our best to fight for them. However, we all have to recognize that, going into these sessions, we have extraordinarily little bargaining power and that if we cannot come to agreement on some specific improvements, the bill is likely to move forward with no changes at all that would benefit us.

Whether you decide to allow us to speak for you or not, we ask that you keep in mind the damage that is done by the fragmented appearance of the visual artist community. Please do not continue, or have your members continue, to contact anyone in Congress with specific complaints about the Orphan Works legislation at this point. It only make us look weak, confused, and fragmented; and both Congress and the user community will act based on that perception.

We look forward to hearing from you regarding authorization to use your organization©√s name. We wish this could be done in a different and far more inclusive manner; however, we are not making the rules and we have no way to change them.

Click here to visit John's June 05 President's Message.

Click here to visit John's March 05 President's Message.

Click here to visit John's December 04 President's Message.

Click here to visit John's November 04 President's Message.

President's Message March, 2006

President's Message
March, 2006